David Brend and Gustavo Rodriguez were convicted of wire fraud conspiracy for helping promote and run the now-collpased fake crypto mining and trading scheme.
Ponzi Scheme News
What is a Ponzi scheme? An illegal endeavor, Ponzi schemes essentially aim to attract and take advantage of unsuspecting investors by touting untrue claims of low risk and significant reward. Ponzi schemes typically stay afloat by using money from newer participants to pay older ones, thus making the endeavor seem profitable — so long as new participants continue flowing in.
The endeavor is named after Charles Ponzi, an Italian con artist who performed such a scheme in the 1920s in the United States, costing his investors about $20 million. Ponzi’s scam wasn’t the first of its kind, although it was one of the largest. Ponzi schemes share some commonalities with pyramid schemes, and neither of the two is legal in the United States. Bitcoin (BTC) has been called a Ponzi scheme at times over the years, although its performance and structure have proven otherwise.
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According to the SEC, CryptoFX allegedly targeted crypto investors from the Latino community across 10 U.S. states and two foreign countries.
3027After spending 34 months in prison, Konstantin Ignatov walked free after cooperating with prosecutors and agreeing to hand over $118,000 in ill-gotten gains.
10964The alleged Ponzi scheme once hired an actor residing in Thailand to act as its CEO when it launched in 2021, according to a newly filed SEC complaint.
3107Scammers often impersonate well-known people or entities in the cryptocurrency industry to fool unsuspecting investors.
1926Ivan Turogin and Sergei Potapenko are suspected in a $575 million fraud case, but they can’t be exposed to U.S. detention conditions.
5158AirBit Club co-founder Dos Santos is now the last AirBit defendant not yet sentenced but is scheduled to learn his fate on Oct. 4, 2023.
2588Former IcomTech head Marco Ochoa is the latest crypto fraudster to face charges.
3229Convicted fraudster Pablo Renato Rodriguez must also serve three years of supervised release after he finishes his 12-year prison sentence.
7872Ponzi schemes promise returns generated from the money of future investors, while in pyramid schemes, income flows up through recruitment.
Despite having no trading experience, a Tennessee couple convinced 100 people to hand over their money for a uniquely named crypto investment pool.
2709The scheme allegedly claimed it could generate returns of up to 2.2% a day by leveraging AI to trade more often and with higher profits than a person could.
7377A public burn function introduced in the latest upgrade allegedly allows users to burn tokens from other addresses.
6396Co-founder Pablo Renato Rodriguez and three senior promoters all recently pled guilty to the charges, while the other founder pleaded guilty in October 2021.
10497According to the Department of Justice, Forsage employed smart contracts that were coded in ways consistent with a Ponzi scheme.
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